“People in the arts often want to aim for the biggest, most obvious target, and hit it smack in the bull’s eye. Of course with everybody else aiming there as well that makes it very hard and expensive to hit. I prefer to shoot the arrow, then paint the target around it. You make the niches in which you finally reside.” PeopleWantWellsArtHardEyeCoursesAimPaintObviousExpensiveTargetArrowsBullsNicheSmack Author:Brian Eno
“Things that are very popular are not taken seriously, because the snobbish side of one says, "Well, if everyone likes it it can't be that good." Whereas if only I and a couple of other people like it, then it must be really something special.” PeopleIfsWellsSidesTakenSpecialCoupleLikesSomething SpecialVery PopularSnobbish Author:Brian Eno
“The tools are evolving, and people's interests are evolving as well. So, suddenly people like to hear bands, people like Devendra Banhart or the xx, bands that make a kind of virtue of sloppiness. That isn't what they would describe what they're doing, but the fact is they make a virtue of the sort of hand-made nature of what they're doing.” PeopleWellsKindMadeFactsHandsInterestVirtueBandToolsEvolveSloppiness Author:Brian Eno
“Basically, you're still sitting there using just the muscles of your hand, really. Of one hand, actually. It's another example of the transfer of literacy to making music because the assumption is that everything important is happening in your head; the muscles are there simply to serve the head. But that isn't how traditional players work at all; musicians know that their muscles have a lot of stuff going on as well. They're using their whole body to make music, in fact.” KnowsWellsStillsImportantWholeFactsBodyHandsStuffPlayerExampleMusicianMusic IsHappeningsSittingTraditionalAssumptionMusclesLiteracyTransfers Author:Brian Eno
“There's a kind of edge to what you're doing, the kind of leading edge of what you're doing. Inside that edge [are elements you] are familiar with, and are probably becoming slightly bored with, as well, over a period of time. "I've pulled that one out before. Oh, no, I can't I'm just fed up with that. Let's do something else."And you always think "Oh my God I've never done anything at all like that before." But, of course, in retrospect, and to an outsider, they'll say, "Oh, yeah that's typical Eno.” ThinkingWellsKindI CanDoneCoursesBecomingPeriodsElementsYeahEdgesFamiliarBoredFedsOutsidersTypicalRetrospectFed Up Author:Brian Eno
“The time I like listening to music most on headphones is, I have a game I play with my brother, he's a musician as well.And he sends me MIDI files of keyboard pieces. So, these are pieces where I just get a MIDI file; I don't know what instrument he was playing them on; I know nothing about his section of the sound of the piece, and then when I'm sitting on trains I do a lot of train travel I turn them into pieces of music. And I love to do that; it's my favorite hobby.” KnowsWellsPlayTurnsGamesSoundPiecesBrotherListeningMusicianSittingInstrumentsTrainMy FavoriteMy BrotherHobbiesSectionsListening To MusicFilesKeyboardsHeadphonesMidiFavorite Hobby Author:Brian Eno
“Well, I am a dilettante. It's only in England that dilettantism is considered a bad thing. In other countries it's called interdisciplinary research.” WellsCountryResearchEnglandBad ThingsOther CountriesDilettantesInterdisciplinary Author:Brian Eno
“Every increase in your knowledge is a simultaneous decrease. You learn and you unlearn at the same time. A new certainty is a new doubt as well.” WellsDoubtIncreaseCertaintyDecreaseUnlearnSimultaneous Author:Brian Eno
“Attention is what creates value. Artworks are made as well by how people interact with them - and therefore by what quality of interaction they can inspire.” PeopleWellsMadeValuesAttentionQualityInspireInteractionArtwork Author:Brian Eno
“Well, there are some things that I just can't get out of my head, and they start to annoy me after a while. Sometimes they're of my own creation, as well - and they're just as annoying. It's not only other people's ear worms that bug me, it's my own, as well.” PeopleWellsSometimesMy OwnCreationEarsAnnoyingWormsBugs Author:Brian Eno
“Everybody thinks that when new technologies come along that they're transparent and you can just do your job well on it. But technologies always import a whole new set of values with them.” ThinkingWellsWholeJobsValuesTechnologyTransparentNew TechnologyImports Author:Brian Eno
“The reason I don't tour is that I don't know how to front a band. What would I do? I can't really play anything well enough to deal with that situation.” KnowsWellsI CanReasonEnoughPlayDealsSituationKnow HowFrontsBand Author:Brian Eno
“There are certain sounds that I've found work well in nearly any context. Their function is not so much musical as spatial: they define the edges of the territory of the music.” WellsCertainFoundSoundFunctionMusicalEdgesTerritorySpatial Author:Brian Eno
